The sport of shooting pistols or rifles, whether for competition or for leisure, is widely practiced. For many riflemen, marksmen, hunters and the like it is customary to reuse, i.e., reload spent cartridges themselves, be it for the purpose of improved range, accuracy or consistency or for reasons of economy. Yet, before such handloading operation, it is advisable to check and if necessary adjust the length of cartridges because they have the tendency to increase in length due to the forces exerted upon them by firing.
Numerous means for the above stated purpose have been disclosed and/or placed into commercial use, yet, it is believed that none satisfy the need for a device which is simple to operate, universally applicable to various size cartridges but which at the same time provides the same if not improved accuracy of operation over the state of the art. It is believed the instant invention achieves such need.
The following references have been found to be of interest:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,406,170 (Smiley) discloses a cartridge case trimmer wherein the end of a cartridge is clamped into a locking device and, in this position, is moved towards the rim cutting means. Change-over to different size cartridges is difficult and time consuming, and accuracy of trimming may suffer due to possible lack of firmness in the locking means.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,307 (Smiley) provides an improved version of the above device, yet, incorporates the same basic drawbacks.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,661 (Westbrook) deals with a cartridge trimming and measuring device wherein the cartridge is held in a block movable towards the cutting tool, however, change-over to different cartridge sizes is cumbersome.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,563 (Beaulieu) teaches a cartridge trimmer having a certain chuck holder for the cartridge as well as guiding means for the rim of the cartridge for improved accuracy. This reference apparently attempts to overcome the accuracy deficiency of the previous references.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,282 (Schaenzer) describes a cargridge resizer and trimmer useful for one particular size cartridge only.
The disadvantages of the above referenced devices are believed to be overcome by the instant invention which provides the user with cartridge trimming means which are simple in operation, readily adaptable for essentially all rifle, pistol or revolver ammunition commercially available, including military ammunition sizes, yet, provide repeatable accuracy of trimming even after trimming a considerable number of such cartridges.